Class X girl gangraped, senior student arrested

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Malda, July 11: A Class X girl was lured out of her home by a senior student from her school in a Malda village last night and allegedly gangraped by him and three other youths.

Police said Mangaldeep Mondol, 19, had been arrested soon after villagers had found the girl lying unconscious beside a corn field, barely 500m from her home. The girl has been admitted to the Malda Medical College and Hospital.

The 16-year-old girl is the only child of her parents. Her father works as a house painter.

According to the police, the girl gave a statement to them after she had regained consciousness at the hospital.

“She said Mangaldeep had been bothering her of late and used to send her lewd text messages on her cellphone. Around 5pm yesterday, he called her on her mobile phone and said he was waiting outside her house on the road with school notes. The girl told us that she had found him along with three other youths, whom she couldn’t recognise. When she went to them, one of the youths held her, pressed a cloth on her nose and she passed out. The girl regained consciousness at the hospital later at night,” said an investigating officer.

He said the girl’s family panicked as she didn’t return home. “Around 7pm, villagers found her lying unconscious beside a corn field around 500 metres from her home. Her clothes were torn. They informed her parents. She was then taken to the hospital. The girl’s mother filed a complaint of gangrape against Mangaldeep and three others. Mangaldeep was arrested around midnight. We are interrogating him to find out the identity of the other three. We are also trying to determine what was used to make the girl unconscious,” he said.

The girl’s mother said: “Mangaldeep has been bothering my daughter for some days and yesterday he and his friends gangraped her after luring her out of home.”

Malda police superintendent Prasun Banerjee said a youth had been arrested in connection with the gangrape of a girl.

“The arrested youth has been remanded in police custody for three days. We are interrogating him to identify the others. A case of gangrape has been started. We are awaiting the medical report,” he said.

Tribal woman raped

A 40-year-old tribal widow was raped by three unidentified men at her house in Balurghat in the early hours of Tuesday. Police said a medical test had been conducted on the woman and evidence of rape had been found.